India witnesses a diverse and varied culture. Adorned by endless varieties of cultural patterns, the landscape of India is beautified with lovely traditions. Different states have different languages, eating habits, customs, religion, etc. Like all other aspects of life, the dances of different states in India are also distinct. The uniqueness of dances of India binds the entire country together.
Kuchipudi is one of the eleven major Indian classical dances. It originated in a village named Kuchipudi in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.
Kuchipudi is a dance-drama performance, with its roots in the ancient Hindu Sanskrit text of Natya Shastra. It developed as a religious art linked to traveling bards, temples and spiritual beliefs, like all major classical dances of India.Evidence of Kuchipudi's existence in an older version are found in copper inscriptions of the 10th century, and by the 15th century in texts such as the Machupalli Kaifat.Kuchipudi tradition holds that Tirtha Narayana Yati – a sanyassin of Advaita Vedanta persuasion, and his disciple, an orphan named Siddhendra Yogi, founded and systematized the modern version of Kuchipudi in the 17th century.
Bharatanatyam is a genre of classical dance originated in Tamil Nadu, India. Traditionally, Bharatanatyam has been a solo dance performed exclusively by women, and it expressed South Indian religious themes and spiritual ideas, particularly of Shaivism, Vaishnavism and Shaktism.
Bharatanatyam's theoretical foundations trace to the ancient Sanskrit text by Bharata Muni, Natya Shastra, its existence by 2nd century CE is noted in the ancient Tamil epic Silappatikaram, while temple sculptures of 6th to 9th century CE suggest it was a well refined performance art by the mid 1st millennium CE. Bharatanatyam may be the oldest classical dance tradition of India.
Bharatanatyam style is noted for its fixed upper torso, legs bent or knees flexed out combined with spectacular footwork.